the words of one seized by the power of a great affection.

new york yankees

chien mang wang, starting pitcher of the New York Yankees, just called me and said he completely agreed with my new theory. Randy Johnson sent me a text saying the same. What do these two have in common? They both injured themselves while trying to hit in the National League.

For years now, since 1973, the American League has been using the position of Designated Hitter (DH) in place of the pitcher taking a bat in his hands. The rule was always controversial and thus remained active in the AL only but the NL continues to force pitchers to swing the bat. This rule must change. Not because AL offenses are more effective or because watching pitchers hit is often times like seeing a car accident. Its going to be ugly and you know you should turn your head but you have to watch the chaos. The reason the NL must adopt the DH position is because having pitchers hit is putting their careers at risk.

I decided to write my thoughts on the topic after watching 12 foot legend Randy Johnson strain his shoulder while swinging and according to some reports may have ended his career. Also, Chen meng Wang required season ending surgery last season while running to first during an Interleague game in Houston. After watching Wang pitch in 2009 i would say that the injury has had a dramatic effect on a once dominating sinker ball pitcher.

There is no longer any reason to go without the DH rule. It generates more offense which generates fans which generates revenue. The threat of ruining careers is no longer worth it. Lucky for baseball fans Randy Johnson started in the AL so that way fans could witness the career that was Randy Johnsons.

the beauty of football is that any team can build a championship caliber team in just a few years. this is due to equality in the amount of money teams can spend on players a.k.a the salary cap. baseball has doomed itself in my opinion. i love baseball. it is my favorite sport. but when the yankees are allowed to spend 180 million dollars on a first baseman, 170 million on one pitcher, and another 80 million on a second pitcher. they have spent a total of 400 million in one offseason. that is absurd for a few reasons. one no one deserves that type of money. there are too many things in this world that could use that sort of money. another reason, and the one i believe is destroying baseball, is only a handful of teams can even afford top baseball players. the yankees, red sox, dodgers, angels, cubs, mets and maybe the tigers are all willing to spend money in large amounts. that leaves 25+ teams to sign the “scraps” of the offseason. there is no coincidence in the fact that these major market teams make deep playoff runs every year. sure there is the occasional slip (i.e. 2008 tigers and yankees) and sure teams like the rays will slide into a championship and make some noise but baseball has sold its soul to the no salary cap era. baseball needs to change its policy soon or the sport could buy itself out.